Changes

Perhaps the earliest fountains date to the beginnings of urbanism, around 3000 BCE, where they were used as early palace and garden decoration, as well as bringing water into these buildings. Often, fountains were associated with sacred, religious areas where gardens had important religious meaning and water played an important role in ritual. Fountains were first discovered in southern Mesopotamia, in modern Iraq, where a series of basins were utilized in the ancient city of Lagash that likely tapped water from irrigation networks and canals nearby. Gods, such as Ea, were associated with water, thus fountains were made to represent water flowing out from the god. In the palace of Mari, from around 1800 BCE, a fountain of a goddess has been found and, in many ways, similar to much later fountains, where she holds a vase that then has water flowing out, perhaps suggesting how the goddess provides life giving water (Figure 1). Ancient Egypt had likely similar fountains, although relatively little has been depicted of ancient fountains there.<ref>For more on ancient fountains in the Middle East, see: Gates, C. (2011) <i>Ancient cities: the archaeology of urban life in the ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece, and Rome</i>. 2nd ed. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, Routledge, pg. 65.</ref>

Gods, such as Ea, were associated with water, thus fountains were made to represent water flowing out from the god. In the palace of Mari, from around 1800 BCE, a fountain of a goddess has been found and, in many ways, similar to much later fountains, where she holds a vase that then has water flowing out, perhaps suggesting how the goddess provides life giving water (Figure 1). Ancient Egypt had likely similar fountains, although relatively little has been depicted of ancient fountains there.<ref>For more on ancient fountains in the Middle East, see: Gates, C. (2011) <i>Ancient cities: the archaeology of urban life in the ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece, and Rome</i>. 2nd ed. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, Routledge, pg. 65.</ref> As gardens developed with improved water technologies by the early 1st millennium BCE, more elaborate fountains and gardens were created, such as at Nineveh in northern Iraq. Aqueducts were now introduced and later Greeks began adopting this technology. However, what differed from Mesopotamia is that rather than using fountains as royal or religious architecture specifically, fountains began to have a more civic meaning. For instance, at Athens, the sixth century BCE ruler Peisistratos built <i>Enneacrounos</i>, which became a symbol for the city. The name for this fountain means nine spouts, suggesting a large fountain with nine spouts. Its place in the agora of Athens suggest it was intended to be a public feature, although to this day the feature has not been found.  Most likely, the fountain utilized a nearby natural spring to feed it, thus it may have also had a practical purpose in providing water for Athenians. Thus, while fountains became adorned as public symbols of cities, they also served as potentially practically useful water springs. The Athenian fountain, along with those from Mesopotamia and others, likely used gravity flow and even pressurized water through narrow pipes. It is not clear if water coming out was always recycled or how this would have been done in early fountains. Water pumps powered by wind were utilized in cities in the Mediterranean by the Classical period, including Alexandria, Rome, and cities in Greece. <ref>For more on how Greek and classical fountains developed, see: Margaret Melanie Miles (ed.) (2016) <i>A companion to Greek architecture</i>. Blackwell companions to the ancient world. Chichester, West Sussex, Wiley Blackwell, pg. 13.</ref>